Camilla Pang
b'
Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of eight, Camilla Pang struggled to understand the world around her; in fact, she asked her mother if there was an instruction manual for humans that could help. Twenty years on \\u2013 after taking her PhD in biochemistry and embarking on a career as a scientist \\u2013 Camilla has herself has written that manual. She\\u2019s called it \\u201cExplaining Humans\\u201d and it won the Royal Society Prize in 2020 for the best science book . A highly original blend of scientific theory and personal memoir, it gives a real insight into what it\\u2019s like to live with autism.
In a fascinating conversation with Michael Berkeley, Camilla Pang talks about how she\\u2019s learned to thrive in a world which can seem very overwhelming. One of the issues for her is the sensory overload that people with autism spectrum disorder can experience. She\\u2019s very sensitive to certain sounds, and the morning commute to work can jangle her senses to such an extent that it takes much of the morning to recover. Music, on the other hand, restores mental calm. Camilla sings and plays the piano; although she has never learned to read music, she can \\u201ccatch\\u201d a tune after hearing it only once. She did this first as a very young child, hearing her mother\\u2019s favourite Michael Nyman track and reproducing it straight away on her toy xylophone.
Camilla shares the music that has sustained her over the years; we hear Hubert Parry\\u2019s great coronation anthem \\u201cI was glad\\u201d; Michael Nyman\\u2019s music for The Piano; William Byrd\\u2019s \\u201cAve Verum Corpus\\u201d; Debussy\\u2019s \\u201cClair de Lune\\u201d, and Teardrop by Massive Attack.
Produced by Elizabeth Burke\\nA Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3
'